Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/112

Rh may not witness so conclusively as might be desired to the tale of oppression, that a record of

notices were immediately multiplied by five and the product, amounting to 100,000 per annum, was gravely submitted to the public as the figure which represented the exact number of victims to landlord oppression. The slightest acquaintance with agricultural affairs would render such mistakes impossible, and the bona fides with which they are committed only shows how little qualified to offer an opinion are many of those who profess to instruct the conscience of the nation.

From a Correspondent of the Daily News, Jan. 1867.

"The eviction returns of Dr. Hancock are employed, but these have been superseded by the more recent returns of Lord Belmore, which show that within the last six years more than 40,000 occupiers, amounting with their families to 200,000 persons, have been evicted. But it should be remembered that these returns are to the utmost degree imperfect: for no evictions could have been included in them, but such as were registered and authorized by the Courts of Law, and it is a well-known fact that ten-fold more (i.e. 2,000,000) are dispossessed—ten-fold more evictions (i.e. 400,000) are effected by a mere " notice to quit" of which there is no public register and can be no returns, than by process of ejectment, of which returns might be procured. Hence these returns must be most imperfect and cannot form a just formation for any reliable conclusion."

From a Correspondent of the Freeman's Journal, Jan. 1867.

"In view of the social charges since 1828-38, assuming that there were only two defendants—an average obviously too low—in each of Lord Belmore's ejectments, the 35,463 cases represent 70,926 holdings and at the usual Irish rate of 5 persons to each family, these indicate 709,260 human beings actually or liable to have been dispossessed in the six years in question!"

The true relation which a service of ejectment and an eviction bear to one another, as well as the kind of occasion on which